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Unremitting Joy – 4

Mark brings us to the garden, when the sun had risen and Salome too is with the Mary’s.

Just who went to the tomb, was it just Mary as John records, was it the two Mary’s as Matthew records, was Salome with them too as Mark records, or was that female only list as Luke lists – ‘Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them’? Does it matter? Was it still dark, was it as dawn was breaking, was it after dawn once the sun had risen? Does it really matter? Did the women go to annoint Jesus or just to look at the tomb? Is it more or less important what their motives were?

It is easy to get bogged down in the detail, to be led into being caught up in a vortex that we can’t or don’t move on from. To forget that this detail is merely setting the scene for what is to follow. Sometimes we need stand back to take our focus off the detail and look at the bigger picture. Just because people see things differently doesn’t mean they have got it wrong, shouldn’t mean that conflict follows as details are fought over and the vision gets lost. One or more women went to the tomb expecting one thing and discovering another. The discovery itself is far more important than how it came about.

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb.